SGU 3x01 Eli's plan
by Elender Rambo
Summary: Eli has just 2 weeks, 336 hours, to fix a stasis pod or face the ultimate sacrifice. But it's OK. Eli has a plan.
1. Diagnostics

**Chapter 1: Diagnostics**

Eli had a plan, and his first order of business was to fix the stasis pod. He set the countdown for 334 hours. It had been an hour since Colonel Young had gone into stasis, which Eli had spent staring out the observation deck port, watching the mesmerizing flow of FTL, and thinking.

Mechanically, the stasis pods were set up in groups of eight, each group controlled by a central hub that could connect to twelve pods. The redundancy was built in as a fail-safe. He set _Destiny_ to work, comparing every atom of the one that didn't work with one that did and, in a separate program, the hub that linked to the one that didn't work with one that linked to all its pods. He'd written his own diagnostics program instead of using Rush's. With it, the problem had turned out to be simple to diagnose but difficult to fix. The pod that wouldn't work had a bad capacitor and its hub had a bad relay switch. This was, essentially, a hardware problem, and to fix it Eli needed spare parts.

But there was a bigger problem. All in the last group of eight—Eli, Young, Scott, Rush, TJ, Chloe, Camile, Greer—were at risk if that hub couldn't switch connections as a fail-safe. The capacitor in Eli's pod had overloaded because of the bad switch, and if it could happen to his pod, it could happen to anyone's in that group.

In a ship this large, there must be other groups of pods. The Ancients had planned to board a crew of about four hundred people and there were only seventy-two humans aboard. Eli didn't have time to search manually for the other pods, so he put in the parameters of a hub and asked _Destiny_ to identify all hub locations and plot them on the set of _Destiny_'s blueprints that Camile had been compiling. He also asked _Destiny_ to plot designated storage areas that might contain spare parts. To bypass any security clearance issues, he used the master command code to initiate the search program.

The console beeped. He had found both easily enough. Why hadn't Rush? Or had he found them and not said anything? That might be why Rush had volunteered to be the one who stayed out of stasis. Rush had had a plan, too. He hadn't wanted to skip the remaining two-thirds of this galaxy, true. Eli really didn't, either; he wanted to learn more about the descendants of _Destiny II_. But Rush was focused on _Destiny_'s mission and he'd lost his small hold on compassion over pragmatism when Amanda was killed. He was dismissive of the descendants. He never brought them up in conversation, and if anyone else forced a comment from him about them, whatever he said was tinged with jealousy.

Rush had probably planned to sit in the chair, so he could stay with _Destiny_ until the end of its journey. The only problem with that was the quarantine of personalities in the computer. When Eli had been forced to put Ginn and Amanda into quarantine, he'd set up a protocol that applied to all personalities. He hadn't mentioned this to Rush. If Rush tried to sit in the chair and turn to cold smoke, he'd be quarantined, too. If Rush had just wanted to get Amanda out of quarantine, that wasn't going to happen either. Eli and Ginn had the only key to open that door.

_Focus_, Eli thought. His analysis of Rush's motives could wait.

He looked back at the console and started examining the results.

Spare parts for each group of stasis pods were stored in a drawer at the base of its hub. Groups of pods were distributed throughout the ship. There were 512 of them, presumably sixty-four groups of 8. The 72 they had located when exploring were directly under three sections of crew quarters with twenty-four rooms each. These were the quarters nearest their command area, and among the ninety-six apartments they'd found so far.

Eli could just use the spare parts he'd located. He could fix his pod and replace the hub in about an hour, but that would require taking the other seven in his group out of stasis. He'd have to do that eventually, but discussion this early might nix his other plans. He decided to wait. There might be a better solution.

Since he was working alone, most other groups were inaccessible. They were either in unexplored remote sections of the ship, in areas that _Destiny_ had locked for reasons of safety, or the path to them was blocked by locked areas. Access to the group of pods under the fourth section of the crew quarters they were using was blocked by a locked area. Eli wondered, since stasis pods were located under quarters in the exact number needed for the occupants above, if there was a way to access them directly from each section of quarters. Maybe a chute? An enclosed spiral staircase? A secret passage?

Looking for that, too, could wait.

_Destiny_ had plotted three online hubs within the boundaries of the area of the ship they'd been using. That meant they had overlooked twenty-four stasis pods in the core area they'd been using daily since their arrival. Why had no one noticed them?

The only answer was that they must be hidden or disguised, probably for the security of misdirection since all three were in key areas. One hub was under the bridge, another near the clinic, and a third under the DHD console.

Countdown read 332.25.

Eli downloaded the updated blueprint to his laptop and set off for the bridge, glow stick in hand.


	2. Alone on the bridge

**Chapter 2: Alone on the bridge**

Eli had gone over the decking inch by inch and hadn't spotted a trapdoor. He had gone to the floor below and hadn't spotted an access panel in the ceiling. But he knew there was a section of stasis pods there because _Destiny_ said so. There was a hub on the blueprint.

It would make sense to keep the stasis pods of key personnel shielded and hidden. Those in stasis were vulnerable. The ship might be boarded by unfriendlies, after all.

Frustrated, he went back to the bridge and sat down in the command chair. He pulled the command console forward. He'd have to ask for _Destiny_'s help.

Asking for help was tricky. _Destiny_'s computer, though well advanced of those on Earth, was basic by Ancient standards. It wasn't interactive, like he'd heard the hologram on Atlantis is. You had to know exactly what to ask and how to phrase your question. In fact, it was a bit like using Unix when you'd got used to Mac OS X. And it was even more difficult because he wasn't fluent in Ancient.

He brought up the updated blueprints and clicked on the hidden hub under the bridge. He managed to ask for detailed information. A load of information filled the screen and some of it was contradictory. For example, ten pods were attached to this hub, with only a two-pod redundancy. He started running the diagnostic program on those pods, to see if they were fully operational. But he still didn't know how to access them.

Since a complete analysis would take fifteen minutes, Eli decided to see if he could access the stasis pods in the clinic and gate room.

The gate room, two floors down, was closer. He went immediately to the console that functioned as a DHD and started looking from there. The DHD console was on a landing with flights of stairs on either side opposite the gate. The area below each set of stairs was enclosed and from the blueprint this seemed to be where the hub was located. That would make sense. All space on a ship has to be utilized, after all. If he'd thought about it at all, he'd assumed it was storage. Maybe it was an armory.

But, again, there was no obvious door, or someone would have opened it.

Eli realized he was thinking like a modern human, not an Ancient. He went back to the DHD console and typed in his search query again. As an afterthought, he added the command code.

And apparently that was the key. Like the Ancient version of a right click.

This time when he clicked on the hub in the blueprint and asked for detailed information, a new item appeared: _intrare histacia kamara_. Apparently Ancient for "enter stasis chamber." The chamber held six stasis pods.

Eli clicked on it.

Three soft chimes sounded behind him, then he heard a whisk. A panel of the wall had opened to an elevator. As soon as he got on, the doors closed and immediately opened again to the hidden room. There were six stasis pods there, sure enough, but that wasn't all. There were also six EVA suits, a console, which wasn't booted, and what appeared to be a large container of Ancient survival supplies. And hand weapons; it _was_ an armory after all. There was another large piece of equipment there, too, but Eli couldn't even guess what it was for.

He decided to start a diagnostic on the pods, though they wouldn't hold everyone from his group, then check out the clinic. When he looked at the elevator, it wasn't there. It seemed to have reverted to a wall. He tamped down his panic and looked closer, holding the glow stick high. There were eight buttons, little more than raised bumps, subtly placed inside a piece of art shaped like a large single paisley figure.

He touched one and heard a soft chime. It didn't sound like one of the notes he'd heard upstairs, either.

Gak.

The elevator, the only exit, was sealed with a musical combination lock, and Eli was no musician.


	3. A deer, a female deer

**Chapter 3: A deer, a female deer**

Eli considered booting the console, but he wasn't sure he should. Or that he could—it might need to be initialized from the gate room.

No . . . that wouldn't make sense. That would trap anyone who woke up here, and this wasn't a jail. Nevertheless, Rush was correct about power conservation. Every watt counted. Time was power. That's why he was wandering around with a glow stick.

He should just suck it up and find the exit. He'd boot the console as a last resort.

He pressed each of the buttons in turn and each produced a chime in a different note. It was a scale. He sang do-re-mi to himself, and the notes didn't match. Apparently it was a scale in a different key. The combination was probably three musical notes like the one that got him here. He tried that, playing the three notes that got him here. The elevator door stayed closed.

He gave up. Last resort time.

But that didn't work either. After some searching, he found what had to be the power button on the console and pressed it. Nothing happened. All the other consoles on the ship had started automatically when they arrived, or had revived when touched, like a computer in sleep mode.

If he couldn't find his way out, no one would _ever_ find him here. And if he couldn't boot the console, he couldn't prep one of the pods.

He'd die.

_Okay_, he thought, _so not helpful. Think happy thoughts. Breathe._

That made him wonder how much air was in the room. The scale on the wall _must_ be the key to operating the elevator. He went back to it.

He tried four notes. He went up and down the scale. He played the _enter_ notes twice. Nada. He started working methodically through all possible combinations, but realized immediately that that would take forever.

Okay, okay. Eli remembered the yoga exercises he'd been doing with Chloe. He made himself sit still for a moment to clear his head. He reached for the scale, without a conscious plan.

He played the three _enter_ notes backward.

The door slid open.

Eli didn't take time to feel relieved; he jumped in immediately. Back in the gate room, he checked the countdown. Yikes! It was 331.37. He'd lost a half hour, at least.

In the interests of time, he decided to forgo checking the pods attached to the clinic and head back to the bridge. The diagnostic should be complete and, now that he knew what to look for, he should be able to get in and out of the stasis room.

He sat down in the command chair and started reviewing the diagnostic report. It looked good. All ten pods were on line and fully operational. None of the contacts needed a boost of palladium hydride. And . . . wait.

Maybe not so good. Two of the pods had been occupied when Eli initiated the diagnostic program.

And weren't now.

Eli stared at the console, motionless.

Behind him, he heard a whisk as an elevator door opened.


	4. First contact

**Chapter 4: First contact**

The whisk of the doors that froze Eli in place was followed by the sound of a human voice asking a question in an unknown language, and that mobilized him. Eli swiveled around, knocking the console askew in the process, and then he froze again, tense.

He stared, eyes wide. Staring back at him were a man and a woman, both dressed in chocolate brown tunics and trousers. They appeared to be Ancients, but they also seemed familiar. He didn't know it, but the darker colors they wore signified that these were early Ancients. Both appeared to be in their mid-thirties. The man was about five-ten with chin length blond hair tucked behind his ears. The woman was a knockout, drop-dead-gorgeous redhead.

He got it! She looked like a redheaded version of Samantha Spade and he looked like Carlisle Cullen. Eli's mom was a fan of both _Twilight_—the only vampire story she liked—and _Without a Trace_. He processed all this in a couple of seconds while everyone continued to stare.

Eli made the first move. He raised his left hand, palm out, divided his fingers into the doubled-finger vee of a Vulcan salute, and said, "Pax." He remembered that that was Latin for _peace_ and hoped it was the same in Ancient.

The man dissolved in a fit of laughter and Eli relaxed slightly. The woman switched her stare to her companion and then she, too, started giggling. But she pulled herself together and asked Eli a question in Ancient.

He smiled and shrugged. "I don't have a clue what you're saying, but I'm so _so_ happy you're friendly."

The woman smiled at him and patted her companion, still laughing, on the back. Then she strode over to one of the consoles and removed three devices from a drawer. They looked like large medallions threaded on a cord. She plugged the medallions into ports on the console and typed rapidly on the keyboard. Lines of flowing text filled the screen. Must be data banks of some sort. She cleared the screen and typed rapidly again. Whatever she read there made her smile, and she made a quick comment to the man. It sounded like "filet benny."

The man had mostly sobered up by then, and was only chuckling intermittently. He smiled back at her and said what sounded like "nose Ellis post."

_Right,_ Eli thought, _and __what are we so happy about__?_ But he was relieved that they didn't seem wary of him.

The console dinged and the dataflow stopped. She disconnected the medallions and handed the devices around. Then she passed out three earplugs.

The two Ancients hung the medallions around their necks and put the plugs in their ears. Eli followed suit.

"Now we can talk," she said. "These are universal translators." She smiled. "One of my inventions. Not as good as truly knowing a language, but adequate for communication. They've been programmed with a limited vocabulary of about five thousand words and a basic syntax of your language, but the device will learn as we speak. And so will we."

Eli got the gist of what she was saying, but it was a bit like playing "pass the secret" through Babblefish. He completely missed the fact that she was an inventor. "How do you do? I'm Eli Wallace. Of Earth."

The man, now under control, manually and awkwardly arranged his fingers into a Vulcan salute. "I'm Pax Adham, and this is my wife Mens Sana. Also of Earth. We're Altera. Do you know of us?"

"I do," Eli replied, "though we call you Ancients. I'm . . . speechless. We've been on _Destiny_ for almost two years and had no idea it was already occupied."

"We? You're not alone?" Mens Sana cocked her head as she asked the question and crossed her arms when she finished. Waiting, and not too patiently, either.

"At the moment, I am." Eli said. "Everyone else is in stasis. We have power and . . . other issues. I'm only awake because we were one pod short and I'm best qualified to solve that problem. Which I've figured out how to do, even if I haven't done it yet.

"Look, this is a long story. I'm not our spokesman and I'm going to have to wake up several people who thought the next time they opened their eyes would be in three years, in another galaxy."

"Who does speak for you? Ours is a long story, too. And you're on _our_ ship." Pax Adham's humor had vanished. He sounded stern. He and his wife exchanged a significant look. He leaned toward Eli, waiting for his answer. If Eli hadn't heard him laugh, he would have been intimidated.

Eli's plan may have encountered a major roadblock. He didn't know much about the Ancients, but he had heard a few stories. Most of the Ancients he'd heard about were arrogant without cause, and that arrogance had greatly contributed to their downfall. Replicators. Wraith. For two examples.

These two _had_ seemed friendly enough . . . but now?

He looked at the countdown: 330.86. Though he'd probably have to recalculate it, and soon. "Would you like something to eat?"


	5. Walking with sunshine, walking with rain

**Chapter 5:****Walking with sunshine, walking with rain**

They started walking toward the mess hall, Eli between the two Altera. At first he couldn't decide whether they were accompanying him or escorting him. Maybe a little of both.

Pax Adham seemed open, cheerful, and totally relaxed. He was even whistling. In contrast, Mens Sana had gone from her initial cool reserve to a closed, brooding intensity. The drastic change in her mood had been sudden, but Eli decided not to worry about it unless her husband seemed concerned.

Their route took them by the clinic and when they passed it the two exchanged another significant look.

"I'm going to nip in here for a minute," said Mens Sana. "Wait here."

Eli was impressed with the translation program. _Nip?_ He also wondered if Mens Sana's errand had anything to do with the hidden stasis hub that was in the clinic area. When Pax Adham spoke, Eli wondered if he was trying to distract him from thinking about Mens Sana's errand.

"Why did you come to _Destiny_, Eli Wallace? You've been here two years? How did you get onto the ship? We know we're out of range of Earth."

"Well, the short version is that we came out of curiosity. Someone found a nine-chevron gate address in the Ancient database and the air force wanted to check it out. The _when_ was an accident. We weren't on Earth. I'd only been in the program a few days, which means I'd only known there were such things as stargates for a few days, or that space travel to other planets was even possible.

"I didn't find out until the air force came looking for me because I'd solved your nine-chevron proof in an online video game. Anyway," Eli said, waving off the interruption he could see coming, "we were under attack, I had _just_ figured out the ninth chevron, the core of the planet was about to explode, and Dr Rush dialed the nine-chevron address instead of dialing Earth. Pissed off a lot of people, too, but he thought he'd never get another chance. We were on the only known planet with enough power. The attack happened so fast that we came through with only the items we each had with us and only the supplies that happened to be near the gate room."

Mens Sana returned and she had visibly relaxed. She smiled enigmatically at her husband and the tension that had built on the bridge and in the hallway dissipated. Some message had passed between them and they had decided to trust him. To a point.

_Married people._ _Or maybe they're telepathic, _Eli thought.

He cleared his throat. "Do I have to repeat that?"

"No," said Mens Sana. "I heard it all through the device." She tapped her ear.

"But there will be questions," put in Pax Adham.

They were negotiating the last turn in the hallway three abreast, so Eli didn't respond until they had arrived at the entrance to the mess hall. "Sure. But first I need to tell you about our deadline. Um, about food . . . I hope you won't be disappointed. We finished off most of our perishables in our last meal and we recently lost most of what we were growing in the hydroponics dome. We had to recharge in a blue supergiant, and what we couldn't harvest burned up."

"You fixed the dome?" Pax Adham asked. At the same time, Mens Sana asked, frowning. "You recharged in a blue supergiant? Why? And how? _Destiny_'s protocols should have prevented that."

"Yes," said Eli, looking at Pax Adham, "but now it's broken again. Because of the blue supergiant. You knew it was broken?" Turning, he said, "Yes, Mens Sana. It's another long story and getting around the protocols was dicey. It's directly related to why we have a deadline. What would you like to drink? Shall I put the kettle on? I think we have some herbal tea. And there's a fruit juice, too, if you can handle it. I don't think it was quite ripe when we found it ten or twelve planets ago, and we haven't found a good substitute for sugar or honey yet. Mainly because of the lack of sugar, I wouldn't recommend the products of the still."

"Dicey? And you can call me Sana. That's my personal name. Tea would be fine but what I'd really like is some coffee."

Eli's eyes widened and lit up. "Coffee?"

"Yes," she said. "It's a drink made from the seeds of a plant grown on mountains near the equator on Earth. You roast the seeds slowly, and then . . ." She trailed off as she noticed his expression. "You know of it?"

"Of course he does, Sana. Look at his eyes," her husband said. "Dicey? And you can call me Adham, by the way. And yes, we knew it was broken. We'll talk about that later."

Eli thought the list of what to talk about later was growing long enough that they should actually _make_ a list. "Dicey. Risky and unpredictable. And call me Eli—that's _my_ personal name. I'd kill for coffee . . . well, not literally." He glanced up, to make sure they weren't about to wrestle him to the floor. "Better yet, mocha. That's coffee mixed with chocolate. Chocolate is made from cacao beans." He sighed. "But we don't have any."

"I'll make something for us to drink," Sana said, "if you and Adham will prepare the food. Then we can talk. How's that?"

"If we're going to talk about the ship and the mission, I'd like to have three people who are in stasis join us. Camile Wray, our civilian administrator. Colonel Young, who's in charge of the military personnel. And Doctor Cone, who's our Ancient expert. She's going to be so excited. She's been studying the language, but she hasn't had a chance to practice speaking it."

"Maybe Doctor Cone first—but not right now. We want to talk to you privately without complications or politics," put in Adham. "Or unduly accelerating your countdown."

"Yes. We'll just have a nice meal and a chat." Sana's expression became serious. "We're not giving up control of our ship and the decision of who we share it with is ours. And we're not compromising our mission." And then she broke into a sunny smile. "Drink."

_Shit,_ thought Eli as Sana flowed out of the room in the direction of the kitchen. _Sounds like a job interview. Wonder what happens if you don't make the cut?_


	6. Breaking bread, such as it is

**Chapter 6: Breaking bread, such as it is**

"Well," said Adham, "let's see to the food. You called it leftovers? Where is it?"

"Kitchen. Refrigerator." Eli noticed Adham's blank look and supposed _refrigerator_ was not in the translation device's vocabulary. "In the cold storage unit. But before we do that, I'd better recalibrate the countdown."

"No need," said Adham mildly. "I already instructed _Destiny_ to recalibrate the countdown. It's . . . three three oh point four seven."

"Are you sure? When did you do this?"

"I'm sure," replied Adham, then whistled five notes. "There's the detailed readout." He pointed to the console in the corner of the mess hall.

There was a detailed diagram of the oxygen concentration in the designated parts of the ship that had life support, together with rates of diffusion. Essentially, the ship was conserving energy by transferring existing air out of empty compartments into the core area, then sealing those compartments when the air was gone. The air might get a bit stale, but life support wouldn't kick in until it had to.

"As I read this," began Eli, "when you stepped out of stasis, the two of you together started consuming oxygen five percent faster than me alone and each additional person that we bring out of stasis will speed the countdown five percent. Right, Adham?"

"Exactly."

"And you set this up by whistling?"

"You noticed that, did you? Yes. We use sound patterns to communicate with _Destiny_. She set up the program. I just told her what we needed. To compensate for the additional oxygen consumption and adjust the countdown accordingly."

"Wow," Eli observed. "Guess this is one more thing to discuss later." He wondered if _Destiny_ was always listening in. His stomach rumbled. "Food."

They entered the kitchen together and, to Eli's surprise, Sana was not in sight. That was weird. He had definitely seen her enter that door.

"Over here." He pulled containers from the shelves and put them on the counter. They had restocked when they dropped the colonists off and most of it was more like food from Earth than what they'd eaten the first few months, when they were coping with whatever edible substance they could gather and they couldn't control where they stopped. None of the food was what they craved, or even that tasty.

They had bread. Sort of.

"All right. This looks like everything that's already prepared except the bread and what's left of that is like hardtack." Eli sucked on his bottom lip while he considered the meagre offerings. Not very impressive. "This," he pointed to a container almost full of what looked like tomato soup, "is awful unless it's warm, and not much better then. It's not worth using the power to heat it." He put it back into the fridge.

Adham, who had been sniffing the containers delicately, said, "Where is the . . . 'hardtack,' did you say?"

"In the cupboard, there." Eli gestured in that direction. He sighed. "I wish Dr Cone—Bella—had made our last meal, but she was already in stasis. She's our expert on native food but she hasn't finished her analysis of most of what we got from the colony. She's a great cook. She did _not_ make the bread." He stopped himself from adding that she had spent one of her semesters abroad in college at Cordon Bleu Paris. It would just be one more thing to explain later.

"I'm not a bad cook myself," Adham stated, putting the container of bread on the counter along with a large round platter, spoons, a knife, and a box that, when opened, turned out to be full of herbs and spices. Adham seemed to have come to a decision.

_Guess this really is their ship,_ Eli thought. _Where did those spices come from?_ _Oops!_ Adham had started washing his hands and Eli joined him hastily at the sink.

Adham started assembling the food, impressing Eli when he saw what he was doing. Bella was going to be estatic.

.

* * *

.

They had just laid the platter on the table, their finishing touch, when Sana re-emerged from the kitchen, _which only had the one door_. There _must_ be a secret passage in there. Eli wondered where it went.

She was carrying a pottery jug with a plug in it and three earthen cups that Eli was sure had not come from mess hall storage. He caught the slight nod she gave to Adham. In contrast to her previous reserve, she radiated good cheer.

_Huh._

He wasn't going to ask. He wasn't—

"Is there a secret passage in the kitchen?"

"Yes," she said as she handed round the cups. At first he thought she wasn't going to elaborate, but then she added, "It goes to our private apartments. Adham, would you do the honors?" She handed him the jug.

From somewhere—a pocket?—Adham produced a tool that broke the seal and the plug popped up. He removed it and poured a tiny portion into his own cup, swirled, smelled it carefully, then took a small sip. Exactly as if he were approving the wine at a fine restaurant. "It's good." He filled each of their cups half full.

And that's what it turned out to be.

Wine. Dark and full-bodied.

Eli raised his cup and looked at the other two, who looked confused for a moment, then mimicked him. "We have a custom when drinking wine," Eli said. "I'll make a toast, and then we all sip." From their expressions, he guessed the translation program thought "toast" in the context of food referred to crisped slices of bread but he pressed on regardless.

"To friendship and _Destiny_."

They all took a sip. The wine was excellent.

"I like this custom," said Sana and she raised her glass. "To friendship."

"And _Destiny_," said Adham.

"Here, here," Eli said, voicing the closing words of the ritual. They all sipped. Eli put down his glass and eyed the platter. "I'm starving."

Considering what he'd had to work with, Adham had done a remarkable job on the hors d'oeuvre. And that's exactly what he'd produced—a platter of hors d'oeuvre. He'd broken the bread into irregular bite-sized pieces. Cutting it didn't work; it would just crumble. He'd chopped or creamed the vegetables and used them to make two spreads for the crackers, pausing to add ingredients from his box of spices. For once, the tart potatoes, the complete opposite of sweet, failed to live up to their name. The spread was sweet and tangy. He'd cut the cherry tomatoes in half and dusted those and the brocca with a dressing and herbs, and distributed them around the platter. It looked like an anti-pasta. _If only they had pasta to go with it,_ Eli thought . . .

He reached for a tomato, the one Earth fruit they had courtesy of Bella, who'd grabbed a flat she'd just planted as she ran out of her lab that fateful day on Icarus.

He closed his eyes and almost groaned aloud. It was that good. When he opened them again, both Ancients were watching him. Sana looked smug and Adham was beaming.

"So, you like it," Adham stated.

"Oh . . . yes. I do. Did I taste olive oil?"

Sana looked at Adham and raised one eyebrow. "Yes," he said. There was an olive grove near the gate on one planet. Three galaxies ago."

"Really?" Eli said. "Out here? It tasted just like olive oil from Earth. Don't olive groves take a long time to grow before they produce?"

Sana prompted her husband. "Adham?"

"Four to twelve years before they bear fruit. But they live a long time, and keep producing. Sometimes for thousands of years. That's why we seeded them."

"You _seeded_ them?" Eli was getting excited. "_You_ seeded them? On the planet? Three galaxies ago?"

Sana looked at Adham. This time, he nodded and his nod was not subtle. She turned to Eli. _Something_, he thought, _is about to happen. __I'm__ going inside. _

He remembered the day, not long after they had arrived on _Destiny_, when he was playing lookout for Chloe while she was taking her first shower on the ship. Lieutenant James had pulled him away and several people had cornered him, probing for inside information.

He was on the inside, they told him. He'd know what was going on with the people in charge.

He didn't, not then. He was still the kid who'd solved the video game puzzle. Gradually, as they came to rely on him, he did become one of the key people on _Destiny_.

But this. He sensed he really _was_ about to go inside.

This was a sea change.


	7. Alphabet soup

**Chapter 7: Alphabet soup**

Mens Sana regarded the young man Eli Wallace with pleasure. She did not believe in prophecy, but she knew, and so did Adham. Silently Adham agreed, _He's the one we've been expecting. The third of the Decade._ They did not even need to consult their alphas.

As she rose from the table, both men stood up. _Eli has manners,_ she thought. _A bonus_. Aloud she said, "Gentlemen, let's adjourn for the rest of the meal."

"There's more food?" Eli asked. Sana could tell he was trying to sound blasé, a ploy that was failing. He was still hungry. He'd grown quieter after the revelation of the seed ships' purpose. He didn't know them yet as individuals. As people. She and Adham were merely the mysterious Ancients who had, unbeknownst to Eli and his companions, already been occupying the ship his people had claimed for their own. There would be time. Millions of years. Perhaps millions of lifetimes. She put that thought aside; no one knew how long the mission would take, and it couldn't be rushed. Nor could adding the third to the Decade. No matter how long they'd been waiting.

"The meal is in our quarters," Adham said. "_Destiny_ usually has a big meal waiting when we come out of stasis, but since the end of this cycle was triggered prematurely it wasn't ready."

"So your food was welcome," Sana said. She almost added _And so are you_, but it wasn't the right time for that. Yet. She would have to be patient. This was, in essence, a negotiation. Patience was not one of her strong points. Her habit was to decide then act and deal with any consequences later. Of the two of them, Adham was the diplomat.

"We'll take those with us," Adham said to keep Eli from putting the wine cups in the dishwasher. "Bring them." He picked up the wine, placed his hand on the lock, and whistled the combination followed by the destination.

_Show off_, Sana thought. Though her alpha had eventually learned to do that, she still had to key directives in, or sing them. She rarely sang unless she was alone. The elevator door whisked open, and she clamped down on her wandering thoughts. Eli was looking curiously at the wall where the elevator control had suddenly appeared. It had looked like a nondescript part of the wall near some glowstrips before Adam had activated it. Watching Eli learn _Destiny_'s secrets, even a minor one such as this, was going to be fun. She hadn't had much fun since her ten-year-old digamma's death. _Just a year ago, to me._ In her mind, Adham's voice said gently, _Eli's speaking, love. _She glanced at Adham, then turned to Eli. "Sorry, Eli. I missed that. What did you say?"

Eli was still staring at the open elevator door. "Um . . . I need to check the countdown . . . um. You got that covered, Adham?"

Sana got the figure through her link with _Destiny_ and passed it on. _It's 329.77._

"It's three twenty-nine point seventy-seven," Adham told Eli.

"How did you do that without whistling it up?" Eli had noticed.

_Misdirection?_ she asked Adham.

_Minor misdirection. We must not be deceptive, _he replied. Aloud Adham said, "How do you know I didn't? Shall we?" His hand swept an _after you_ that apparently needed no translation. They all entered the elevator.

"Hey! You didn't," Eli said. "I'm not that oblivious." Sana suspected he would have pushed it, except that he was clearly diverted when the door opened on the entrance hall to the Decade suite. "Where are we and how did we get here so fast? We haven't been able to find internal conduits big enough to accommodate elevator shafts."

"There are no conduits," Sana said, answering his last question first. "What you call _elevators _we call _entera_—"

"Seriously?" Eli interrupted Sana with a laugh. "You call your elevators _intestines_?"

"I believe there may be a translation problem," Adham, ever the diplomat, intervened. He must have noticed the sudden rigidity of her spine. He tapped on his medallion, which paused the translation program. She was proud of her entera and might perceive criticism where none existed. Adham spelled the word, then tapped the medallion again. "One of Sana's inventions. They work like the stargates, but on a much smaller scale. We'll have to flag that word in the program."

"Wormholes? Within the ship?" Eli was excited, but he hadn't lost his focus. "Wait! Shouldn't we be walking? We really do have power issues and—"

It was Sana's turn to interrupt Eli. "The power they use is more than offset by the savings in powering life support. _Destiny_ has now shut down everything except the life support in this suite of rooms and on the bridge." _And the suite is on the secondary system._ Eli was looking about and she thought about what he was about to see. The vestibule was small, an empty room with standard beta style ship's doors on three walls, including the entera they'd just exited.

"Here to the left," Adham said, opening that door and whistling the lights up, "is our meeting room." Sana watched Eli as he took it in from the threshold. The door opened to a corner of the room and a table that was large enough to seat twenty comfortably was in the center. A large, flat viewing screen was in the middle of the table and more viewing screens ranged along three walls. A series of control consoles lined the fourth wall.

"Ah," Eli said. "It's Captain Picard's ready room."

"Pardon?" said Sana. "Never mind. You'll tell me—"

"Later," all three said at once, then laughed.

Sana crossed the hall and opened the door to the bridge stasis chamber. "Here are the stasis pods that we were in when you woke us up. I started prepping them when I came back for the wine. You should be able to move your people by the time we finish eating."

Adham was standing by the entrance, currently concealed, to their quarters on the fourth wall. "Before we go in, Eli, we must have a promise from you."

Eli said nothing, but raised his eyebrows. Clearly, he'd noticed the shift in mood presaging the first step to the covenant. Levity had given way to formal ritual.

"You must promise to keep this location secret from your companions. Indeed, you must keep our existence secret until we are ready to reveal it." Adham searched the English vocabulary for its equivalent to the Alteran ritual expression. "Do you so swear?" When Eli paused, he added, "We'll still feed you—but here in the . . . ready room."

Sana perceived that Eli's pause before answering was not indecision but recognition that this was a solemn occasion and that there was no going back from here. _It's all right, Adham,_ she threw through the link.

"I do so swear," Eli replied, then added a phrase that _Destiny_ couldn't translate. It was nonsensical. "If you're serious, I will be dumb ball door to you, not peat or pet I grew." Apparently, he noticed their confusion. "I recognize that you are the secret-keeper for your abode. And more. But does this mean I can't move the eight people into the pods?"

"Not at all. The command staff meeting room and bridge stasis chamber can be explained as just that—you will simply have discovered it when you found the pods, as an adjunct to the bridge. We'll show you how to take them in through the bridge," Sana answered him. Adham was distracted by how a dumb bell—apparently a weight used for exercise—a garden, and a pet animal related to a binding oath. _Door, Adham._

Sana noticed that Eli didn't visibly react when Adham opened the door. _He's adjusting. He's getting used to the hidden passages._ "Welcome to our home," Adham said, once more making the _after you_ gesture. An appetizing aroma drifted into the entrance hall.

_And your home, too._ Sana allowed herself the optimism of hope.

.

* * *

.

_It's like no other place on the ship,_ Eli thought. He didn't even try to keep the awe off his face. The décor—wood and marble and plants and bright works of art—reminded him of the background he'd seen behind Dr Jackson on the Atlantis portions of the training video.

The floor plan made him think of a Roman villa, except that the space was triangular. They had entered at one of the points, on the top of three floors in front of a sweeping set of stairs. Opposite the entrance was another sweeping set of stairs; behind those was a small observation deck. The lines of flowing FTL were converging, and from that he realized they were facing aft. Balconies ran around the edges of the top two floors, which were lined with ornate carved wooden doors. No rounded functional metal here. Below, in the center, was a courtyard complete with pool, with empty space from floor to ceiling, three stories above.

"This is a replica of my family home," Sana said, breaking into his reverie. "Adham was fostered there. We grew up together."

"It was home to me, too. The rooms on this level are sleeping quarters," Adham said, leading the way down the stairs. As they passed the second level he added, "Some of these rooms are sleeping quarters for one person, complete on this level, but some are connected to the quarters above them. Others are reserved for a specific purpose. That one," he pointed to a room near the entrance, now closed and appearing to be just a wall, "is Sana's laboratory."

"Isn't this using a lot of power?" Eli was concerned about the countdown.

"None from the ship's reserves. Sana was going to switch our quarters over from our secondary system, but when she learned of your power issues, she decided to wait."

"I didn't understand why _Destiny_ had engaged the secondary system until I heard about the blue supergiant. We have crystals that draw power from subspace. They can't power the ship for a sustained period of FTL, but they will protect our quarters, the bridge, and the priority stasis chambers. Almost indefinitely. So long as we're in here, your countdown is suspended."

_ZPMs!_ Eli thought. _Wow_. He added _zero point modules_ to the mental list titled Incredible Things to Discuss Later. He was becoming overwhelmed. _Breathe,_ he told himself. They had reached the buffet table, where a feast of salads, stews, and desserts was laid out. Adham and Sana starting filling plates and gestured that he should do the same, and Eli suddenly found himself unable to decide what to try first. Some of the ingredients he saw appeared to be not just from Earth, but from parts of Earth that he'd thought were inaccessible to Europeans until the 1500s.

"Those are avocados," he said. "And bananas. Is this chicken? Or maybe duck? What's this?" He poked a spoon into a dish that smelled like eggplant, but looked like water chestnuts. _A, B, C, D, E,_ he thought. _Where's the soup?_

"More wine? We call that 'vatimgana,'" Adham answered as he settled onto a couch with his plate after refilling everyone's wine cup. "It's . . . someone's favorite dish."

Eli noticed that Sana had gone quiet, and when he glanced over at her, she had ducked her head to hide tears in her eyes. He decided to give her some space. They ate quietly for a few minutes, then Sana got up and wandered out of the room.

"What's going on?" Eli whispered to Adham.

Adham hesitated, as if he were listening to an incoming message. "A moment," he said. Adam tidied up the dishes on the buffet table, then activated something that caused it to sink into a recess. "I've put the—leftovers?—back into stasis. Another table, full of fruits, nuts, and sweets, rose up. Eli smelled _coffee_. Real coffee. Hot, fresh, just ground coffee. Sana reentered the room, carrying a tray. She wasn't crying but her expression remained solemn.

"Oh, thank you," he told her. "Thank you, thank you. I've been dreaming about this for months."

She took a deep breath. "You're very welcome." She looked at Adham for a long moment. He nodded.

"The others are still in stasis," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "Each of us has a favorite food we like to have when we come out. Or beverage. Mine's coffee." She raised her cup in illustration.

"Others?" Eli stuttered. He'd thought there had been an extraordinary amount of food for three people.

"Four others," murmured Adham. He raised his voice slightly. He ignored Eli's astonished expression and gave Sana a look that clearly conveyed _It's your turn_.

"We each have two living clones," she said. She didn't ignore his astonished expression. She took a sip of coffee. "Take your time."

Eli's hand was trembling. His cup rattled against the table when he set it down.

.

* * *

.

**Notes**

It's taken me a while to post a new chapter, but meanwhile I've made progress on the back story. I'm not making promises, but that work should make the remaining chapters of "Eli's plan" faster to write.

"Eli's plan" is my version of SGU 3x01 and there isn't much more to this episode. Eli has to tick off "move final eight (including himself) to new pods" and get set up to tackle the next item on his list. You will learn more about the Ancients, how time works in FTL (including stasis), Sana's inventions, and Eli's master plan in the next episode, and I will explain the mysterious terms I introduced.

As you can see from the image I posted as the cover, I plan at least one change from canon in the format of the Ancient numbers, since they're important to the countdown clock. I find the canon clock difficult to interpret and I don't believe it's well designed. There's a good shot of the canon countdown clock about mark 41:30 in SGU 1x02 Air part 2.

I think it's odd that the Ancients should happen to choose colons as separators, just like U.S. standard time punctuation, and I find it irritating that the numbers look so much alike and nothing at all like genuine ancient alphabets, except perhaps the Stone Age cuneiform-on-clay ciphers that were baked inside their cases. No one saw _those_ unless there was a dispute—and who needs separate symbols for _ten goats_ and _ten sheep_? That's not where the merchant Phoenicians or concurrent Hebrews, who taught the Greeks and Etruscans, who taught the Romans, who taught us, learned their aleph-bet.

I have chosen to use the ancient Greek alphanumeric system, with minor alterations, which uses one symbol per number. The ancient Greek acrophonic system and Roman numerals are both impractical for the countdown clock because they use multiple symbols to represent most discrete numbers. I do understand that it's not period canon—our Altera predate the Greeks by hundreds of thousands of years—but at least it's a period we can all look up. There's no reason that the Phoenicians and Hebrews couldn't have adapted their system from remnants of Ancient culture, right? The Lanteans would have arrived back on Earth from Atlantis at approximately the right time. I've made up a chart and if I can figure out how to post a picture larger than a postage stamp, I'll put it up.

Eggplant with garlic sauce is my usual order when I visit a Chinese restaurant for the first time, so it was natural for me to envision this as the _E_ dish in the feast. _Vatimgana_ is the Sanskrit name for eggplant, and northern India is where it was first grown, perhaps thousands of years ago. Northern India is considered the oldest surviving agricultural society in the world, as well as the oldest literate one. Arabs took eggplants into Spain about 800 CE, after the Persians took it to Africa. We—I'm American—say _eggplant_ because 18th-century Europeans did; they grew a variety with oblong white or yellow fruit about the size and appearance of eggs. The British—and modern Indians, who speak British English—call the fruit _aubergine_, which is its Arabic name, _al-badinjan_, filtered through French and Catalan.


End file.
